Jordan Henderson reveals what England dressing room was like after Iceland defeat

England’s shock defeat against Iceland at Euro 2016 will go down as one of the Three Lions’ most humiliating results ever.

Roy Hodgson’s men were the overwhelming favourites against the European minnows in Nice.

But despite taking the lead through Wayne Rooney’s fourth-minute penalty, England found themselves 2-1 down less than 15 minutes later following goals from Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigþórsson.

The favourites never recovered and they bowed out of the tournament with a whimper.

The haunted look on the players and the coaching staff, including Hodgson, said it all.

Hodgson tendered his resignation in the immediate aftermath of England’s embarrassing last-16 exit. In truth, he walked before he was pushed by the FA.

Henderson admits the pain is still raw

Four months on from the Iceland debacle and the pain is still raw for the players, Henderson admits.

“Iceland will stay with me,” the Liverpool midfielder, an unused substitute that day, told the Daily Mail. “I know it is easy to say you have to learn from those experiences and use them to motivate you so that it doesn't happen again, but it will always stay with the players.

“That is one of the worst places I have been. Even though I did not play, I felt part of the team. We're in it together and I really believed in us.”

Henderson reveals what Hodgson was like in dressing room

Henderson also revealed how bad it felt to be inside the dressing room and how Hodgson reacted after the defeat.

“We let everyone down — the country, the fans, the manager,” he added. “The dressing room was horrible. Really horrible. People were emotional. The manager was emotional with the talk that he gave afterwards. It wasn't nice to see. Everyone is human.

“Some people think we are machines and they can just chuck everything and criticise. I can tell you we do care. I can understand why the fans were mad. They had every right to criticise us. It is up to us to change that.”

Henderson optimistic following Southgate appointment

England won their first match after Euro 2016, against Slovakia, under the management of Sam Allardyce.

But after being caught out by a newspaper sting, Allardyce was recently replaced by Gareth Southgate, who takes charge of his first match against Malta this evening.

“He's done very well with the 21s as well,” Henderson said of Southgate. “He'll bring his own style. We have to buy into what he wants to do, put that into the next two games and get two wins.”

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